The State of Hiring in Denmark
2025 Edition
Part of the “State of Hiring in Scandinavia” series
Executive Summary
Denmark’s labour market shows the same paradox seen across the Nordic region: employers report they cannot find qualified workers, while many qualified candidates, particularly foreign professionals, cannot get hired.
According to Dansk Industri’s (DI) 2025 Virksomhedsbarometer, six out of ten Danish companies report difficulties finding employees with the right skills, and around one in five recruitment attempts fails. At the same time, research by FAOS and STAR shows that foreign-born and minority candidates face systematic barriers in recruitment, even in shortage sectors.
Recruitment research and union analyses suggest that two out of three positions are never advertised, with about 62% of private-sector jobs and 31% of public-sector jobs filled without an official posting. This contrasts with official labour-market surveys showing that only about one-third of Danes report getting their latest job through personal contacts.
Despite comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation monitored by the Institute for Human Rights, enforcement in practice remains weak, with low case numbers relative to survey-measured discrimination. The government has reformed labour migration schemes and funded integration programmes, but the informal, trust-based hiring process itself remains largely unchanged.
Unless Denmark implements more transparent recruitment processes, anonymised screening, and outcome-based accountability, its “competence crisis” will persist — not for lack of talent, but for lack of process discipline.
1. Demographics and labour supply
Denmark’s population is ageing faster than its workforce can be renewed through domestic births alone.
Danmarks Statistik and long-term projections indicate that the number of people over 70 is expected to increase by more than one-third by 2040, while the working-age population (roughly 20–64) is projected to grow only modestly over the same period 1 2 3. This creates a growing imbalance between those who are working and those who depend on public services and pensions.
Fertility remains below replacement, at around 1.5 children per woman, and life expectancy has risen to roughly 81–82 years 4. The total age dependency ratio — the number of under-15s and over-64s per 100 working-age residents — has increased from the mid-50s in 2015 to around 58 in 2025, and is projected to continue rising over coming decades 1 2 3.
OECD projections show that without a stronger inflow of foreign labour and more effective use of existing talent, Denmark’s potential growth rate will decline steadily through the 2030s, as a shrinking share of the population is of working age 5 3.
To offset the gap, the government has increased inflows of workers from within the EU and reformed the Pay Limit Scheme (beløbsordningen) for third-country nationals. The minimum salary threshold for the main Pay Limit Scheme stands at DKK 514,000 in 2025, with a supplementary track available at a lower threshold of DKK 415,000 for certain positions that meet additional criteria 6.
Despite these reforms, STAR data for mid-2025 show around 75,000 unsuccessful recruitment attempts across the economy — a sign that demand for labour still cannot be fully met 7.
2. Employers’ perspective: “We can’t find qualified people”
Employers consistently frame the issue as a shortage of skills.
DI’s 2025 report notes:
“Mere end seks ud af ti virksomheder oplever udfordringer med at finde medarbejdere med de rette kompetencer.”
”More than six out of ten companies experience difficulties finding employees with the right competences.” 8
The hardest-hit sectors include:
Construction and installation (electricians, carpenters, HVAC technicians)
Manufacturing (CNC operators, industrial technicians)
IT and digitalisation (software developers, cybersecurity and data specialists)
Healthcare and eldercare (nurses, social and health assistants) 8 5
Employers report that prolonged vacancies reduce productivity, delay projects, and constrain expansion. DI’s director for labour market policy has warned that the green transition risks stalling without enough skilled workers, echoing concerns in the OECD’s economic surveys 8 5.
Yet many of the same companies that claim labour scarcity hire primarily through internal or personal networks and keep recruitment processes informal. This selective visibility fuels the paradox: firms “cannot find” candidates they have not made visible opportunities for.
3. Candidates’ experience: “We can’t get hired”
Foreign-born professionals and minority Danes repeatedly report being screened out long before they reach interview stage.
A widely cited field experiment by researchers linked to Aarhus University and Helsinki University sent 888 job applications to 222 vacancies, pairing candidates with identical CVs but different names. Applicants with Danish-sounding names were more than 50% more likely to receive an invitation to interview than equally qualified applicants with Middle Eastern names 9.
The Institute for Human Rights (IMR) has concluded that ethnic discrimination in Danish hiring is widespread and systematic, with far more people reporting discrimination in surveys than ever bring cases to official bodies 10.
In a 2025 survey among foreign engineers conducted by IDA (the Danish Society of Engineers), around half of respondents reported having been turned down for jobs below their qualification level due to language or “cultural fit” concerns, even after living in Denmark for more than five years 11.
One anonymous respondent summarised the experience:
“Jeg fik at vide, jeg var overkvalificeret – men det, de mente, var, at jeg ikke var dansk nok.”
”I was told I was overqualified — but what they meant was that I wasn’t Danish enough.” — Anonymous IDA respondent, 2025 11
These barriers contribute to underemployment and out-migration. STAR data show that foreign-born employment rates are at least 10–12 percentage points lower than for native Danes, and in some groups the gap is closer to 15–20 percentage points, even among those with tertiary education 7.
4. How hiring really works in Denmark
Denmark’s labour market is small, trust-based, and heavily network-driven.
Recruitment research and union analyses suggest that “two out of three positions are never advertised”, and that around 62% of private-sector jobs and 31% of public-sector jobs are filled without an official posting, often via internal candidates, unsolicited applications, or direct approaches through networks 12.
This contrasts with official labour-market surveys from Danmarks Statistik, which show that about one-third of people report getting their latest job through personal contacts and roughly another third through public job advertisements 1. The discrepancy reflects different denominators: how people say they found their current job versus how many roles are filled before or outside any open posting.
As one HR manager quoted by Berlingske put it:
“I Danmark får man jobbet gennem nogen, man kender. Jobopslag er ofte bare teater.”
”In Denmark, you get the job through people you know. Job ads are often just theatre.” 13
STAR notes that in many cases, companies are formally obliged to advertise vacancies but may already have identified a preferred candidate internally, turning the public posting into a confirmation step rather than a real competition 7.
This practice, though not illegal, undermines openness. It privileges insiders, Danish university graduates, and those already embedded in local professional networks — effectively excluding newcomers and many foreign professionals. The “coffee meeting” (kaffemøde) has become a cultural shorthand for this process: an informal conversation that often substitutes for structured, criteria-based interviews. According to FAOS sociologist Mikkel Mailand, such informality “rewards similarity and shared background rather than measurable merit” 14.
5. Structural causes
Demographics
An ageing society and a modestly growing working-age population create sustained demand for labour, particularly in health, care, and technical occupations 1 4 3.
Skills mismatch
Demand is strongest in technical trades, manufacturing, digitalisation, and healthcare — areas where training pipelines and upskilling programmes lag behind projected needs 8 5 15.
Network-based recruitment
Recruitment research and union analyses suggest that a large share of positions — in some studies, around two-thirds — are filled without open competition, often through personal contacts or internal candidates 12. This systematically disadvantages outsiders and newcomers.
Language and cultural expectations
Fluent Danish is frequently treated as a proxy for trust and reliability, even in international firms where the working language is largely English. Many foreign professionals report that “cultural fit” is used as a vague filter for sameness 11.
Bias and limited enforcement
Anti-discrimination law is strong on paper, but enforcement is reactive and dependent on individuals bringing cases, which many do not. The Institute for Human Rights has repeatedly highlighted the gap between legal protections and lived experience in hiring 10.
Ethnic criteria embedded in broader policy
Recent EU-level developments underline that concerns about discrimination in Denmark extend beyond hiring. In February 2025, an Advocate General at the European Court of Justice concluded that Denmark’s “parallel societies” (formerly “ghetto”) housing law — which targets social housing areas with a high share of “non-Western” residents for demolition and forced dispersal — constitutes direct discrimination on the basis of ethnic origin under EU law 16 17.
While the opinion is not yet a final judgment, it strengthens the case made by the Danish Institute for Human Rights and others that ethnic criteria are built into policy design itself, not only into individual decisions in workplaces.
These structural issues compound one another: companies that hire mainly through informal networks both reinforce bias and reduce genuine competition, making it harder to solve labour shortages through the existing talent already in Denmark.
6. What has been done so far — and with what results
Denmark has not been passive. Over the past decade it has rolled out or refined a mix of legal, migration, integration and training initiatives aimed at shoring up labour supply and improving inclusion. The problem is less the absence of initiatives and more that they rarely touch the structure of recruitment itself.
6.1 Equal Treatment and Anti-Discrimination Framework
Denmark has a solid legal framework prohibiting discrimination in hiring, monitored by the Institute for Human Rights. On paper, the Equal Treatment and Anti-Discrimination Acts provide strong protections for applicants and employees.
Outcome: Awareness of the rules is high, but enforcement is weak. Surveys show many more people report ethnic or religious discrimination than ever bring cases forward, and sanctions remain rare relative to the scale of reported problems 10. In practice, this means the laws function more as a normative signal than as a consistent deterrent.
6.2 Pay Limit Scheme reforms
The Pay Limit Scheme (beløbsordningen) has been reformed several times to attract more highly skilled third-country nationals. For 2025, the minimum salary threshold is DKK 514,000 for the main scheme and DKK 415,000 for a supplementary track tied to specific criteria 6.
Outcome: The reforms have led to a modest increase in permits, particularly in sectors with clear skill gaps. However, business organisations and smaller firms still point to bureaucracy, processing times and administrative complexity as barriers to using the scheme at scale 618.
6.3 “Integration gennem job” and mentorship programmes
Under the banner “Integration gennem job”, municipalities and NGOs have built mentorship schemes, company partnerships and on-the-job language initiatives. Annual public spending has been on the order of DKK 60 million, targeting refugees and immigrants who are furthest from the labour market19 20.
Outcome: These programmes have helped tens of thousands into entry-level and service jobs, often speeding up first contact with the labour market 19 20. Their impact on access to professional, higher-skilled roles is more limited, because they do not fundamentally change how those roles are advertised, screened and filled.
6.4 Green Transition Jobplan
To support the energy transition, Denmark has launched a Green Transition Jobplan and related sectoral initiatives, aiming to train up to 100,000 workers between 2023 and 2030 for green jobs in construction, energy and industry 15.
Outcome: Training targets are partially on track, and the plan has created pipelines into selected occupations. At the same time, estimates suggest that around 20,000 green jobs remain unfilled, largely due to recruitment frictions, certification barriers and local labour shortages 15. In other words, the bottleneck is not just skills, but also how quickly qualified people can be matched and hired.
Across these initiatives, Denmark is clearly not standing still: it has tightened and flexibilised labour-migration rules, invested in integration and mentorship, and linked training efforts directly to the green transition. These measures have helped fill some shortage roles and improved outcomes for parts of the foreign-born population. However, because they mainly address supply-side issues (skills, permits, individual integration) rather than the design of recruitment itself, their impact is constrained: informal, network-driven hiring and weak enforcement of equality law still limit who actually gets access to the jobs that exist.
7. Policy proposals in Danish labour-market debates
Denmark’s labour model succeeds where it measures performance; it fails where it measures similarity.
If the country wants to sustain its welfare model and complete the green transition, it must treat recruitment as a process to be redesigned, not just legislated.
Proposals under discussion
Mandatory anonymised screening for early hiring stages in public and publicly funded roles, removing names, age and pictures from initial CVs.
Transparent posting and audit rules, so that when a job is advertised as open, it is genuinely a competition rather than a formality for a pre-selected candidate.
Language-support incentives that focus on professional communication skills rather than demanding near-native Danish from day one.
Outcome-based evaluation of inclusion programmes — measuring employment, retention, and career progression, not just participation numbers.
As FAOS researcher Mikkel Mailand put it in 2025:
“Hvis vi bliver ved med at rekruttere blandt dem, vi kender, får vi mere af det samme.”
”If we keep recruiting among those we already know, we’ll just get more of the same.” 14
8. Conclusion
Denmark’s labour market story repeats the Nordic paradox: employers say there is a competence crisis, while many competent people cannot get in the door. DI and STAR document tens of thousands of failed recruitments, especially in construction, tech, and care. At the same time, field experiments and surveys show that name, origin, and networks still heavily shape who even gets invited to interview.
The hidden job market, the heavy reliance on “people we already know”, and the documented ethnic discrimination in hiring are not marginal quirks — they are core features of how recruitment is organised. Laws, Pay Limit reforms, and integration programmes have all moved, but the everyday mechanics of hiring remain largely informal and insider-driven.
If Denmark wants to close its labour gaps and live up to its own equality standards, the next decade has to be about changing recruitment processes, not just adding more programmes around them. Transparent postings, anonymised screening, structured selection, and real enforcement would not solve every problem — but without them, the “competence crisis” will remain a crisis of access and trust in anyone new, rather than a true lack of skills.
Danmarks Statistik. Befolkningstal (population levels). https://www.dst.dk/da/Statistik/emner/borgere/befolkning/befolkningstal
Danmarks Statistik. Befolkningsfremskrivning (population projections). https://www.dst.dk/da/Statistik/emner/borgere/befolkning/befolkningsfremskrivning
OECD. Employment Outlook 2025 – Denmark country chapters and labour-market outlook. https://www.oecd.org/employment/outlook
Nordic Statistics / Nordregio. Fertility decline in the Nordic Region and related Nordic fertility statistics. https://pub.nordregio.org/r-2024-13-state-of-the-nordic-region-2024/chapter-2-fertility-decline-in-the-nordic-region.html
OECD. Economic Survey of Denmark 2024. https://www.oecd.org/economy/denmark-economic-snapshot/
Government of Denmark / New to Denmark (SIRI). Pay Limit Scheme – minimum amounts 2025. https://www.nyidanmark.dk/en-GB/Words-and-concepts/SIRI/Pay-Limit-Scheme%27s-minimum-amount
Styrelsen for Arbejdsmarked og Rekruttering (STAR). Rekrutteringssurvey – september 2025. https://star.dk/media/h24p2v3v/rekrutteringssurvey-september-2025.pdf
Dansk Industri (DI). Virksomhedsbarometer / analyser om mangel på arbejdskraft (incl. “Medarbejdermangel er stadig største vækstbarriere”, 2024, and follow-up analyses used in 2025). https://www.danskindustri.dk/arkiv/analyser/2024/7/medarbejdermangel-er-stadig-storste-vakstbarriere/
Aarhus / Helsinki University field experiment on name discrimination in hiring (Denmark).
https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/files/290537252/tal2024-conference-proceedings.pdf
Institut for Menneskerettigheder (IMR). Oplevet etnisk diskrimination i Danmark (and related reports on ethnic discrimination and racism). https://menneskeret.dk/files/media/document/Oplevet%20etnisk%20diskrimination%20i%20Danmark.pdf
Ingeniørforeningen (IDA). Survey on international engineers in Denmark (2025 member survey on foreign engineers’ experiences). https://ida.dk
FAOS; Konsulenthuset Ballisager; Jobindex. Analyses on recruitment channels, networks and hidden job market. https://ballisager.com/rekrutteringsanalyse
Berlingske. “Jobopslag er bare teater.” (feature on network-based recruitment and performative job ads, 2025). https://www.berlingske.dk
FAOS – Forskningscenter for Arbejdsmarkeds- og Organisationsstudier, Københavns Universitet. Rekruttering, netværk og tillid i Danmark (research programme overview). https://faos.ku.dk
Klima-, Energi- og Forsyningsministeriet. Grøn omstilling og arbejdsmarkedet 2023–2030 (analyses of green-transition labour demand). https://kefm.dk/publikationer
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Press Release No 18/25: Opinion of Advocate General Ćapeta in Case C-417/23, Slagelse Almennyttige Boligselskab, Afdeling Schackenborgvænge (Danish “transformation areas” housing law). 13 February 2025. https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/Jo2_7052/en/?annee=2025&num=18
Reuters. “Denmark’s housing dispersal policy is discriminatory, EU court adviser says.” 13 February 2025. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/denmarks-housing-dispersal-policy-is-discriminatory-eu-court-adviser-says-2025-02-13/
Dansk Erhverv. Notater og høringssvar om ændringer i beløbsordningen (responses to Pay Limit Scheme reforms). https://www.danskerhverv.dk/politik-og-analyse/analyser-og-udgivelser/
Foreningen Nydansker. Årsrapport 2025 and programme descriptions (incl. mentornetværk og “integration gennem job”–tiltag). https://foreningennydansker.dk/publikationer
Beskæftigelsesministeriet / Ministry of Employment. Integration gennem job – evalueringer og analyser. https://bm.dk/aktuelt/publikationer